The Captain's Daughter

The hareskin coat is the most important symbol in The Captain’s Daughter. As translator Robert Chandler writes in his Introduction, “the entire story turns on this coat, on Pugachov’s return gift of a second coat, and on the ensuing allegation that Pyotr is a turncoat” (xv). The coat is representative of the bond between Pyotr and Pugachov, as well as Pugachov’s attempt to assume the trappings of the nobility despite his origins as a serf. When Pyotr leaves home for the first time, his mother gifts him a hareskin coat. This is a fine object appropriate to Pyotr’s class as a nobleman. When Pugachov assists Pyotr and his party through the blizzard, Pyotr insists on giving the hareskin coat to him in thanks. Pugachov replies, “His Honour is minded to favour me with a fur coat from off his own back. That is his gentle pleasure” (17). In this moment, Pyotr and Pugachov are bonded through mutual assistance, a bond that persists even as they find themselves on opposite sides of a battle.

Savelich objects to the gift as “a nobleman’s coat […] won’t even stretch across your hulking great shoulders” (17). Indeed, when Pugachov dons the coat, it rips at the seams.